The Bible is much more than a book of religion.

Despising the Pleasant Land

Psalm 105 describes Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian captivity and God’s leading them into their promised land of Canaan.

Psalm 106 reminds us how Israel so soon forgot God and despised all He had done for them.

As Israel was led by God to their promised land, so the Pilgrims and pioneers were led by God to the promised land of America; and as Israel forgot and forsook God, so America over the years has followed Israel in despising the God who led, protected and provided for them.

We can say of Americans what the Psalmist said of Israel in Psalm 106. “They forgot God” vs 21 “They despised the pleasant land.” Vs 24, They murmured in their tents and harkened not to the voice of God.” Vs 25.

AMERICA‘S GODLY HERITAGE

The Mayflower Compact

The Pilgrims came to America on the sailing ship, the Mayflower in 1620, just about 400 years ago. Let by Governor Bradford aboard the Mayflower before landing at Plymouth Rock in what became Massachusetts, he wrote The Mayflower Compact, a plan for the first self-determining self government ever put forth in America. Here it is, minus some old English words and phrases.

“In the name of God, Amen.”

We whose names are underwritten, loyal subjects of our dread sovereign, Lord King James by the grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of The Faith, and in honor of our King and country, we have undertaken this voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, (the winds had blown them north to Cape Cod) do by this document solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves into a civic body politic for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends foresaid, and by virtue of this document enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time as shall be thought right for the general good of the colony, unto which we promise all due submissions and obedience.

“In witness we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the 11th of November in the 18th year of the reign of Sovereign Lord, King James, 1620 AD. ”

The United States Constitution

Let’s move ahead one hundred and fifty years later to 1770. When the Continental Congress met to frame the Constitution of the United States of America, they had the difficult task of forming a single nation from the thirteen colonies: each with their own laws, their own money and with their own taxes and import duties. They argued and worked for long weeks, seeking some plan on which they could agree.

At last Benjamin Franklin stood up, we are told and said, “I have lived sirs, a long time: and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of the truth that God governs in the affairs of men.

“If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?

“We have been assured, sirs, in the Sacred Writings, that except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it”

“I firmly believe this and I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of The Tower of Babel.”

The delegates of the Continental Congress agreed and stopped for prayer. The difficulty seemed soon to dissolve and out of that prayer meeting grew the great historic Constitution of the United States, probably the most important historical document ever written. So the colonies became one nation under God.

It would be foolish and devilish to contend that America was not founded with the help of God, or that our founders did not claim that help.

The Senator from Massachusetts

Daniel Webster, a US Senator from Massachusetts 200 years ago said about our founding as a nation, “Our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious sentiment.

‘Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely be trusted on any other foundation than religious principle, nor can any government be secure which is not supported by moral habits. Living under the heavenly light of Revelation (the Bible) they hoped to find all the social disposition and the duties which men owe each other and to society, enforced and performed. Whatever makes good Christians, makes them good citizens.”

Webster continued, “Finally, let us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our Fathers were brought hither by their high veneration of the Christian religion. They journeyed by its light and labored in its hope. They sought to incorporate its principles with the elements of their society and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions, civic, politic, or literary.

“Let us cherish these sentiments and extend their influence still more widely; in the full conviction this it the happiest society which partakes in the highest degree in the mild and peaceful spirit of Christianity.”

These were the words from the senator from Massachusetts 150 years ago.

America was born a God-fearing nation.

And so today we have our God honoring Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, our national songs, such as “God Bless America”, “The Star Spangled Banner” Listen to the third stanza,

“O thus be it ever when free men shall stand between their loved homes and war’s desolation. Blest with victory and peace May the Heaven’s rescued land praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto, “In God is our trust.” And the star spangled banner in triumph shall wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

In our beloved national song, “O Beautiful for Spacious Skies”, God is mentioned in all four stanzas, “God shed His grace on Thee”. “God mend thine every flaw”, “May God thy gold refine”, and again, “God shed His grace on thee.”

In another beloved national song, “My Country, Tis of Thee” we address this hymn of praise to God, the source of our nation and our freedoms. Listen to the last stanza. “Our Father’s God, to Thee, Author of liberty, to Thee we sing, Long may our land be bright, with freedom’s holy light; Protect us by Thy might, Great God, our King!”

I wonder how long it will be before the liberals will ban these hymns of praise to God from public use. Perhaps it has already happened in some places.

In addition to our founding documents and our national hymns of praise to God, nearly all our national buildings and monuments are filled with inscriptions of Holy Scripture engraved in stone. Not only in our capitol, but also in the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, in Liberty Hall in Philadelphia, in the Gettysburg battle field, and so many other places.

Our Bill of Rights forbids Congress from establishing a state religion and also protects us and guarantees that no one can prohibit anyone from the free exercise of their religion.

Back in 1836 a minister, Rev. McGuffey, wrote a set of readers for six grade levels from first through sixth grade. All these readers are filled with Bible stories and Bible verses to be memorized, teaching moral values to the children. For decades following, America’s boys and girls grew up learning to read and learning these Scriptural values in America’s schools.

The dumbing down of America

With the banning of such literature and with the banning of the Bible from the public class room has come increased crime and immorality in our schools and in our nation and the dumbing down of America.

Listen to our late night television comedians go out on the streets and ask the general public simple questions concerning our nations history. Recently one of them asked several the meaning of July 4. Most young people who were asked had no idea that it commemorated America’s freedom from England. At the same time, these young people have been taught in school, even in the elementary grades how to use condoms. Our Nanny State now attempts to protect children from the influence of their own parents.

I thank God that my wife and I back in the early 70’s became aware of the academic and moral bankruptcy of the public schools and began home schooling our children until we could establish a Christian school in our church.

Nearly all of our great statesmen, presidents, and military leaders have in their speeches spoken of their dependence on God and asked for the prayers of God’s people. Every November our President honors God by calling on the nation to give Him thanks for His blessings on us.

Until recent years when we shut God out of our schools and out of our lives, America was a blessed nation from our founding. We believed and experienced the truth of Psalm 33:12 “Blessed in the nation whose God is The Lord and the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.” We Americans knew the God of the Bible was our God and we were His people.

As a result of that relationship with God, we were the most blessed nation on the face of the earth. We enjoyed freedom like no other nation. We were blessed materially beyond measure.

America in the Balance

Since the 60’s our nation has been swinging in the balance between liberalism’s rejection of the Bible and conservatism’s acceptance and dependence on the Bible and its moral values. Unless we turn to a strong acceptance and reliance on the Bible, we will go the way of all nations that have forgotten and forsaken God and drown in the muck of depravity and poverty.

Many, perhaps most Americans today, have fallen for the devilish philosophy that the government owes us a living and must meet all our needs from the cradle to the grave.

The Liberal’s 23rd Psalm

For the typical liberal-educated American the 23rd Psalm reads as follows.

The government is my shepherd, I shall not want.

It leads me by the still waters of complacency.

When I have financial needs it bails me out.

It leads me in the path of total government dependence.

In old age it gives me Social Security.

Yea though I walk through sickness and trouble, I will fear no evil for Medicare and Medicaid are there for me.

It prepares a table before me with Food stamps

and other government subsidies.

It doesn’t matter if there is fraud and waste, as long as I get my share.

Surely mounting taxes and increasing government controls will be with me all the days of my life and when I am gone, my children and grand children will be saddled with a mounting national debt for generations to come.

But who cares?

WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT THIS DEPRESSING STATE OF AFFAIRS?

Christian friend, America’s future is in our hands as Christians. As goes the church so goes the nation. I Peter 4:17 warns us, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the House of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God?”

Remember, human government is God’s provision to protect citizens and provide for them a safe and quiet peaceful atmosphere of freedom so we can each live our lives in pursuit of God’s will which leads to happiness and success.

According to Romans 13:1-7, I Timothy 2:1-4 and I Peter 2:13-17 we are to honor and pray for our leaders, even if we don’t agree with them.

We are to pay our taxes, fair or unfair.

We are to work as citizens to elect good, God fearing leaders and change unbiblical laws.

We are to bring about justice in the criminal justice system by punishing law breakers and making sure that victims of crime are avenged.

Our alternative is found n Psalms 9:17 “The wicked shall be turned into hell and all nations that forget God.” America is no exception.

My Solutions

My solution is not to immediately dismantle our welfare system, but to work on a plan that would over a generation allow individuals and families to set up their own investments and insurance programs without tax penalties on capital gains, so that within the next thirty to fifty years we could gradually phase out Social Security and Medicaire and Medicade

As for our ability to compete in the market place with the nations of the world, the whole idea of unions must be eliminated. Allow the free market place to do it’s thing. Let the businesses that do the best job succeed and flourish and let those business that don’t produce excellent products and services and those who mistreat their employees fail. There will always be a demand for excellent products and services. The rest don’t deserve to exist.

May God raise up some Godly, principled men and women to run for public office on the local, state and federal level and may we see a return to old fashioned patriotic Americanism. It’s not too late!